Crossing Jordan
by cartoonheart94
Summary: Lena Jordan is a seasoned auror. There is nothing she has never seen before and nothing she has never been able to handle. This all changes when a series of horrifying events start to happen that lead to a shocking revelation. Has everything she was taught a lie? Has the Wizarding community being living a lie ever since the end of the war?
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: I own nothing Harry Potter, well, maybe except for my original characters.)

The air around her felt stuffy and it was hard to breathe, but maybe it was because she was sitting in the cupboard her mother had told her to hide in. There was a loud crash and she heard a scream, it was her mother, she was yelling for whoever had come to go away because they had no business coming here. She peeked at the tiny space in the cupboard to see better, she heard loud bangs and saw flashes of light, her father was shouting at the same man too. Then, she saw two bright green flashes and then, it was silent. A silence that was all too loud. Her throat was dry and the tears had long stopped streaming down her face.

Then suddenly, the cupboard door flew open, there he was, the man that had hurt her mommy and papa, he was tall and had a crescent shaped scar next to his eye, he had many marks on his arms and neck and he wore a sick twisted grin as he raised his wand and pointed it at her…

Lena woke up with a start. Her whole body and the bed were drenched in sweat, looking at her bedside clock, it read almost four in the morning. Slowly walking to her kitchen, she sat down and buried her face in her hands. She wanted to tell herself it was a nightmare, just a bad dream. Only she knew that it happened, the night he came and killed her parents, the night he raised his hand and looked at her as though she was nothing, the night he pointed his wand at her and said that one word, '_Sectumsempra_', that left her scarred for life. She knew his face and was going to find him, somehow, some way, he was going to pay for what he did.

Suddenly, a bright silvery light flew into her room in the form of a tiger, she knew that it was Shacklebolt, her boss.

"Jordan, wake up," he said in his gruff voice, "There's been another incident, 287 Shire Street, come immediately." And with that, the patronus left.

"Good morning to you too," she breathed sarcastically.

Lena apparated a few blocks away from said place. Her robes billowed in the October wind as she strode to the scene, she could see the place now, it had been sectioned off in bright red tape, completely invisible to the muggle eye.

"Ten minutes, you're late," Shacklebolt barked as she walked towards him.

"Good morning sir," she said calmly, there was no pleasing David Shacklebolt and Lena knew it. Like his father Kingsley, he was a man of big build and had a lion like face, but he was harsher than his father, always wanting everything done to perfection.

"We've had another happening," he lifted the enchanted piece of tape and let her through, "This time, it's a family. Sweeper aurors are on the case, trying to collect any evidence of what exactly happened," they were now walking past witches and wizards who were pointing their wands at objects in the house, trying to collect information.

"So, what do we know about this family?" Lena asked as she got the file he handed her.

"It's all in there," he replied, "You can see Weasley if you've got any question."

"Weasley's on this case?" Lena asked.

"The Ministry's ordered more people on the case," he growled, "So, there's Weasley and Potter on the case too."

Lena scoffed, those two were still rookie aurors, this was a class five investigation, "Probably because of their family connections," she said below her breath.

Shacklebolt just gave her a look that said he knew what she was thinking and that he would not tolerate her right now.

Lena sucked her teeth and nodded, she sauntered to Colin Willis, her partner, "Hey Colin," she breathed.

The salt and pepper haired man looked at her and smirked, "I see you've managed to lose the Shacklebolt," he observed.

Lena pursed her lips and shrugged, "I just found out that I'm supposed to get my de brief from rookie over there," she pointed at a very enthusiastic looking Rose Weasley who was running around and taking pieces of evidence to study.

Colin just laughed, "Behave yourself Lena," he walked to the back of the room where there were aurors taking pictures of the crime scene.

"So," she asked, "What can you tell me about this case?"

"Well, so far, we know that they were an ordinary squib family," he said it with a bit of irony in his tone, "and they sat down for supper when they were taken. Neighbour called the muggle police when she noticed no movement for a few days and MI6 sent it over to the Ministry when they discovered that it could be more than just a muggle abduction."

Lena was nodding as she let her eyes sweep across the scene, the place looked perfectly fine, there was no sign of a struggle and it looked as though someone had just gone out for a walk and would walk in that door any moment from now.

"So, is there anything out of the ordinary? Anything new?" she pressed.

"Well, MI5 found a set of prints they couldn't trace anywhere and when referred to MI6, there was nothing, the prints are being sent over to the Ministry as we speak," Colin said as he opened his file to show her some of the latest details.

Lena opened her file and to see what he was talking about, "So, that's why MI6 are involved," she observed.

"Yeah, this is not the first incident as you already may have known, but we found something," Colin informed, "the other Ministries have not been telling us but we found from MI6 HQ that these abductions have been happening in Bulgaria, China and France too, I don't know if I'm right, but I think that these are not just the work of a purist who hates squibs as we first theorised, I think that there's more to this."

Lena was nodding, she had not heard much of what he had said as she was looking at something Potter had discovered under a carpet.

"What's that?" she asked as she shone her wand light where the bespectacled boy had uncovered the carpet.

"I'm not sure," he said as he was looking at the scratches on the wood floor, "it looks like some form of writing," he said as he ran his fingers across the area, "Potter, James Potter," he said as he held out his hand for her to shake. She did not take it so he awkwardly dropped it and continued studying the newfound evidence.

"I'm-"

"Lena Jordan," he finished, "I know, I answer to you, I just wanted you to know that," he said.

Lena nodded, "Let me know what you find," she said as she walked away.

Lena started to flip through her file, she read the family's name, they were the Stubbs, they were squibs who had gone to hide in the muggle world and act like muggles, the father, Amos, was an electrical engineer and the mother was a teacher, they had two children aged 12 and 15. They had muggle records and all seemed normal.

"Found something?" Colin asked from behind her.

Lena was shaking her head, "Nope," she replied as she flipped through her file, "Like you said, another family of squibs, it says here that they are third gen squibs," she said as she flipped through their pictures. They were all smiley auburn haired people, the four of them, they looked like the perfect suburban family.

"It says here that they had cut all contacts with the magical world in 1978," Lena said as she pointed at her file, "I don't know," she was shaking her head.

"Wait. When did you say they cut all cords?" Colin asked.

"1978, why?" she replied.

Colin sighed and waved his wand at his file, "I knew this was not ordinary, take a look at this."

She took his file and looked, he had extracted some of their older cases.

"What does it say there?" he asked.

"Marshall Gwin," she read, "status: squib, last recorded by Ministry, Feb.1978, Quinheart family, status: squib, Quinheart family last recorded by Ministry, July.1978," she kept on reading the case files and all of them had cut connection between 1975 and 1980, all had just vanished from the Wizarding world until the days they had been reported missing by muggle police.

"But how-"

"Someone knew about these people Lena, I think these people had come into hiding."

"Uh, they are squibs Colin, of course they will hide." Lena replied.

"I know that," Colin had now taken his file back, "But these ones, it seems too perfect, too organised to be coincidental."

Before Lena could reply, Potter called, "I think I've found something!"

Everybody flocked to where the boy knelt; the scratches were now clear inscriptions in ancient runes. Lena instantly recognised them as Faer Elf Folk tongue, an old language that had long since gone extinct.

"I'm sorry, I can't read it," the Reader said as he studied the inscription.

"_We have penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of Darkness. The Dark is generous, and it is patient. The Dark always wins, it wins because it's everywhere,_" Rose Weasley read.

There was an eerie silence in the room after the words were read. Then suddenly, there was a loud thump banging on the place the runes had been and everybody jumped, she could not see him but Lena was sure that even Shacklebolt had flinched.

The thumping continued for a while before it stopped altogether, as though the thing had gone away. Shacklebolt inched towards the place and whispered, "_Defodio_," almost hesitantly.

The light from the spell slowly went to the runes and inched around every single word before the wood panel flooring started to fall in, Lena was not believing what she saw as the floor crumbled into a perfect round hole in the floor. It was dark beyond the floor, not the dark i-can't-see kind of darkness, darkness that engulfed the inner core of your soul, a dark that bored into your mind, a Dark that filled you to the very core. The kind of Dark Lena remembered from her nightmares.

"_Lumos_" Shacklebolt said, and he proceeded down the stairway that had come up the moment the floor fell in. Lena followed close behind and was closely followed by Colin; Rose Weasley had also come along in case of any more runes.

"What's this place?" Colin asked.

Lena just shrugged and shook her head as she tried to contain her nausea from the putrid smell. Shining her wand around, it looked like an old cellar that had been sealed off. There were a few shelves and some rats were scurrying across the place.

Lena shone her wand elsewhere and what she saw then made her reel. Right there, in the corner, sat two figures, they looked like children but there was no telling whether it was so or they were stunted adults. They were completely naked, few strands of hair hung limply from their almost bald heads and they had red circles around their eyes and their skin had a sickly grey pallor and had grey and red blotches in various places and they looked just about ready to pounce on the newcomers.

"Oh my God," Colin said. From behind him, Rose had turned away to empty the contents of her stomach.

"Call in the Medi-Aurors," Shacklebolt said, even he seemed a little disturbed, if he ever got disturbed, "Willis, Jordan, follow me to HQ," he said as he turned away to walk back up.

Lena swallowed heavily as she turned to follow him. Once they were outside in the fresh air, they all turned on the spot and disapparated.

(A/N: first attempt at something dark, i hope you liked it :) )


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

The moment they arrived outside the Ministry building, Shacklebolt sent a Patronus into the building and they hurried to security so that they could be cleared. It took five minutes for them to get to the CDAU, that's the Counter Dark Arts Unit and Lena could see through the windows that the sun had started to come out. She was still disturbed from what she had just seen to think properly.

The whole floor was abuzz, with people shouting orders and aurors getting their cloaks and rushing to the Floo systems.

"Alright, listen up everybody," she could hear Ron Weasley yelling, he was head of tactical missions, "the Squib-napper case has been reopened to a priority level one. I want every free operative on the move, send a code yellow to all other free operatives in the field, I want all the victims' houses stripped from top to bottom! That means down to the foundation itself! Team Phoenix, follow Nott, Team Banshee, you come with me! Move Move MOVE!" He said as he himself got his cloak and disappeared in the green flames of the Floo system.

All the aurors that were listening dropped whatever they were doing and followed the red haired man, Lena had to wrestle her way through the mob of witches and wizards to finally get into Shacklebolt's office, which was at the opposite end of the hallway.

The office was much calmer than outside, this time, the quiet was more comforting. Shacklebolt walked over to his desk and hung his cloak behind his chair.

"Sit down," he said gravely to the two. Lena wondered what he was about to tell them.

They sat down and Shacklebolt moved to lock the door and draw the curtains to his glass walls.

"Now, what I am about to show you, I don't think I'm authorised to, seeing as you two don't have the required clearance, but you are my right hands and it is a necessary risk to take," he said as he sat down. Pulling out a file, he waved his wand and duplicated it and passed it to the two of them.

Lena slowly flipped through the pages, the first was of a missing squib in Denmark, then there was a blurred out picture of a wizard, then there were many pictures much like the creatures they had seen in the hole in that house.

Lena abruptly stopped flipping through her file, "Sir, what's all this about?"

"The missing squibs, the whole case is a cover," he replied, "Order of the Phoenix just gave the Ministry level clearance on this half a year ago, we are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together."

"Sir, please explain," Colin pressed.

"As you might have figured out, the squibs being abducted are not random, they-"

"All disappeared from the Magical world from 75 to 80," Colin finished.

"That's right," Shacklebolt replied, "and it's because they are not squibs."

At those words, Lena's head shot up to look up at him.

"What are you saying?"

"The squibs…" Shacklebolt continued, "they are Purebloods."

The words dropped like grenades around Lena, she leaned closer to the desk, as though trying to listen better.

"Purebloods that had been taken into hiding by the Ministry when the Dark lord was still rampant," Shacklebolt explained.

"That makes no sense," Colin said, "Voldemort did not attack purebloods."

"These were the purest line of purebloods," Shacklebolt explained, "they had never mixed their blood and were afraid that the Dark lord would find them and force them to join him, which they did not want that and requested the Ministry to protect them."

"So, they decided to pose as squibs?" Lena asked.

"Yes," came the answer, "they had their records altered and all was well until two years ago when Elisha Deadwood disappeared."

"Wait…I thought that the first disappearance was in January," Lena queried.

"The Order had that withdrawn," Shacklebolt explained.

Lena was nodding, in the past two decades, the Order of the Phoenix had risen to the ranks of holding the highest intelligence and security clearance levels. They now controlled what people knew and what stayed secret. With Minerva McGonagall as the General Commander, it was a tight ship and getting anything from them was next to impossible.

"Are there any suspects…" Lena asked, "anyone the Order might think is behind them?"

Shacklebolt was shaking his head, "None," he said, "None they can prove anyway."

"Huh?" Colin asked.

"Well, we've been following Ferro Fiero," he continued, "there is no proving he's the one behind the abductions but this man had gone off the grid for nearly thirty years and when does he decide to resurface? Around the same time Deadwood disappears and he's been going on and off the grid randomly, all but at the same time someone is about to go," Shacklebolt waved his wand to flip their pages for them so that they could get to the page he was talking about.

The moment the page opened, Lena's head froze. It was him. He had the same crescent shaped scar, the same marks- now she knew that they were tattoos, the same grin slapped across his face. It all started to come back to her, that night with her in the cupboard. The night her mother screamed like never before, the first time she ever heard her father get angry the night when-

"Jordan!" Shacklebolt brought her back to reality.

"Are you okay?" Colin asked, she nodded feverishly as she flipped the pages back to the underground creatures, right now, they seemed more pleasant to look at.

"What about these creatures…." She said, trying to get her voice back to normal.

"Those, Jordan, are the real mystery," Shacklebolt replied, "We found another one at the house we raided in March," Shacklebolt continued, "the Order believes that they are Children of the Dark."

"Children of the Dark?" Colin asked.

"Ancient dark magic rituals, now completely forbidden," came the reply, "but even they are not sure of that."

"How do you mean?"

"Children of the Dark are not exactly human, and the tests on the last one we found proved the opposite."

"You mean that it was a human child?" Colin pressed.

"No, not quite, it was human, yes, but there was no telling the age of it, it's like, the things are immortal." Shacklebolt replied, "the only way we can know the whole truth is if we find the abductor."

"That's just messed up," Colin commented lowly.

"That's all I know," Shacklebolt replied, "and even if I knew any more, I don't think that I would have been physically allowed to tell you."

Lena nodded, she knew about the Secrecy charms that were cast to swear someone to silence.

"That will be all," Shacklebolt suddenly said, as if going back to his usual brash self.

"Wait, sir?" Colin asked.

Shacklebolt looked up at him.

"Since we know that the abductions are systematic, I propose we find the others before they are found."

Shacklebolt was nodding, "True, only problem is, their names are with the Order."

Colin sighed, he knew what that meant. Shacklebolt waved his wand at the door and it clicked unlocked, the two walked out and Lena went straight to her little office in the corner. After casting a few freshening charms, she picked up her cloak once more and headed for the door, nearly colliding with Colin, who was about to walk in.

"Whoa, where to?" he asked.

"We have a case to crack, don't we?" she asked.

"Yes, but Weasley will let us know once they have found something," he replied.

"I know," Lena said.

"Then where are you going?"

"To the Order," she replied calmly.

Colin scoffed, "They'll never let you in," he advised, "just save yourself the trouble."

"I'm sorry Colin, but in case you haven't noticed, there are people going missing, being taken by some man we don't know about and worse, there are creatures trapped in floors for God knows what!" she hissed, "We don't know for sure who's responsible right now and the only true lead we have is the Order. If what I'm doing is wrong, then so be it, but I will not sit here and wait for another person to disappear before I do anything, I need to know exactly who these people are and why this is happening now." With that, she pushed past him and started to walk away.

Once outside the building, she started off to the Order the only way anyone could get there: Apparition. Once she had turned on the spot, she found herself staring at the tall, grey building that was three times the size of the Ministry. To the muggle eye, the building was a large, empty field that had "PRIVATE PROPERTY: KEEP OUT!" hung all around the barbed fence, but to someone with magical ability, someone like Lena, she was staring at a tall, dominating, scary-looking building.

Now, security was the worst part of this place, protected by the Goblin Counsel, breaking in was not an option, walking in freely was not an option either, one had to have a direct order from McGonagall herself for them to get in, so right now, that was the toughest job Lena had.

Glancing at her watch, it was only a few minutes after six, hoping the goblins were in a good mood, which they never were, she walked over to the side where the secret entrance was. She placed her wand at what appeared to be solid wall and muttered an incantation, the wall slid to the side and Lena was let in. Walking into the dark hall, she approached the very end, which was sealed off with bars.

"Hello," she called.

"Who goes by?" someone asked as they approached the bars, it was a short man with a large nose and leathery ears.

"Lena Jordan, I'm with the Counter Dark Arts Unit," she showed him her credentials.

"What is your password?" the goblin asked.

"Uh, I'm afraid I don't have one." Lena explained, "I was hoping you'd let me in to ask a few questions on an on-going investigation."

"Sorry," he said curtly, "no password, no entry." He started to walk away when Lena called out to him.

"This is a Ministry investigation and your lack of co-operation would serve as an offence to both the Ministry and the Crown." She said, "I just need to ask Ms McGonagall a few questions."

"Who would like to ask me a few questions?" Lena turned around to see McGonagall standing behind her. The last time Lena had seen her in person was in her third year at Hogwarts, McGonagall was serving her last year as headmistress before going off to head the Order of the Phoenix. She looked like she had not aged a day older, the same signature pointed hat, the same stern looking face and the same square glasses that framed it.

"Goodmorning Ms McGonagall," Lena could not help but feel a little apprehensive.

"Please, it's still Professor," McGonagall replied coolly, "and from looks of it, I don't think you've had a very good morning yourself."

"Goodmorning Professor," the goblin said, "she said she needs to ask a few questions, but I can't let her in without a password."

"It's alright Grunkwield," McGonagall said, "you can let us in."

The goblin gave Lena a disapproving look before swinging the gates open. The two women walked in and turned into the next corridor. The entry hall was a contrast to the glum security check in hall. There was light pouring in from the high ceiling and the centre of the floor was tiled with a large phoenix that kept flapping its wings and bursting into flame. There were a few people walking around, going through files and whispering orders and a lady sitting behind a large desk who was vigorously banging on a typewriter and answering calls from the large phone. They climbed into one of the large elevators and it took them up to the top most floor, presumably where McGonagall's office was. This part of the place was completely empty, there were portraits lining the corridor, some of which Lena could recognise, others she could not, and there was a black door at the end of the red carpeted stretch, with a lady sitting behind a desk at the side of the door.

They approached the lady, a middle aged Indian woman who was typing on a smaller typewriter. At the sight of the two, she looked up and smiled.

"Goodmorning professor," she said, turning to Lena, she smiled, "good morning."

"Hello Ms Patil," McGonagall said, "this is agent Jordan with the CDAU, send up some refreshments, will you?"

"Of course," came the reply.

McGonagall opened the door to her office and gestured for Lena to sit in one of the chairs by her desk, taking her hat off, she placed it on the hanger behind her and did so with her cloak too.

"So, Ms Jordan," she said as she took her seat, "may I ask what brings you here today?"

"I'm here for the squib abductions," Lena said, she took her file out and pushed one of the pictures of the missing people in front of McGonagall, "I'm sure you're aware of what is happening."

McGonagall looked at the picture, and then at Lena, her mouth twitched at the sides, as though wanting to smile, "You know," she said after some time, "I never knew the day would come when I would see an unsmiling Jordan, your father always made a laugh at everything."

Lena ignored her, "The Stubbs had been reported missing for the past three days," she continued, "and this is not the first squib attack in the past year, now, I have reason to believe that you have information on the list of squibs that have had no record from 1975 to 1980, and I would very much like to take a look at it."

"So that you can predict when next the attacker will strike," McGonagall observed, "Well done."

Then suddenly, the table was filled with an assortment of food and drink, "Care for breakfast Ms Jordan?" she asked.

"No thank you," Lena replied curtly, "About the list."

McGonagall waved her wand and the food disappeared, she opened her drawer and pulled out a red file, setting it in front of Lena, she said, "There you go, now, is there anything else you wanted?"

Lena was shocked, she had just been given the information like that, "Yes, one question," she replied, completely masking her emotion, "Now, why is it that this list has been in the custody of the Order, when you have known all along that we might have needed it?"

"Are you accusing us of anything?" McGonagall asked.

"No, I'm just asking a simple question." Lena retorted.

McGonagall took a deep breath and smiled, "Well, if you must know, it's because the Ministry never asked."

Lena felt like she had just been told her life was a whole prank. Of course the Ministry could not have asked because they would have been denied access, but again, they had never thought about asking.

Lena nodded, "Thankyou," she slid out of her chair, "have a nice day."

Lena was near the door when she stopped in her tracks.

"Is there anything else Ms Jordan?" McGonagall asked from her seat.

Lena turned around, she opened her mouth to speak but stopped, then, after a sigh, she asked, "What can you tell me about Ferro Fiero?"

"What do you want to know?" McGonagall asked.

Lena was shaking her head, "Never mind, after all, it's got nothing to do with this case, does it?" she shrugged, Lena was an expert liar.

"Ah, Ms Jordan, everything has something to do with something," McGonagall said cryptically, "If so, then I won't keep you any longer, you can go." She gestured to the door.

Lena was opening the door when McGonagall called to her.

"Yes," she replied.

"I would like you to know that my office is always open to you," the woman behind the desk said, "The password is Conundrum."

Lena nodded and said, "Thank you," curtly as she shut the door behind her.

Fifteen minutes later, Lena was in her office, going through the file that McGonagall had given her. Most of them were presumed dead, the others Lena could recognise as they had already been taken, and a few had absolutely no record of their living places.

Suddenly, her door flew open and at the entrance was Shacklebolt, he looked just about ready to breathe fire.

"Jordan! In my office, now!" he barked.

Lena slowly put her file down and followed him.

"What the hell were you thinking going to the Order!" he yelled no sooner had she closed the door behind her.

"I was just following a solid lead sir," she replied, "we need to know what's going on and they seem to have all the Intel."

"Intel," Shacklebolt repeated, "you mean this?" he slammed a red file on his desk, the same file that McGonagall had given her, "Yes, these came in just now after I received a call from the Order saying that they are being accused of non-co-operation by the Ministry."

"Well, we need the Intel," Lena countered.

"That doesn't mean you can go prancing in and out of the Order making demands!" he shouted, "You need to understand that there is an order in which things must go, if you need something, you go through Willis, who goes through me to go to Potter at head office who goes to the Minister who then, can file a petition to the Order!"

"And how long do you think that will take huh?" Lena retorted, "Two, maybe three days, and until then, we just have to stay put and wait for another family, maybe two, to disappear? Who knows what's happening to these people, for all we know, they could be dead!"

"We don't know that for sure!" Shacklebolt said, "We are all trying to do our jobs to the best and the last thing we need is for your emotions to get into the way."

"Are you saying that I'm too emotional to do my job?" Lena asked.

"Maybe I am!"

"Okay," she said in a low tone as she slowly walked towards Shacklebolt, "I am emotional, that I won't deny, but that's what makes me a good auror, that's what gives me the drive to do my job to perfection and if that's not good enough for you, then too bad," she started to walk out of the door, "You can fire me if you like, but I seriously hope you don't."

"Jordan," he growled.

"Yes sir?"

"Take a break," he said, "what you did today was unacceptable, go home. I'll see you in the morning."

Lena nodded, "Thankyou sir." And she closed the door behind her.

Deciding to Floo back home, Lena walked out of her living room fireplace and threw her cloak and coat on the tiny couch. Her home was not much, just a tiny muggle apartment she managed to fit a fireplace into. Walking to her front door to collect her mail, she was greeted by her cat who started to rub himself against her legs.

"Hi Julius," she said fondly as she picked him up and walked to the fridge to get some milk for him. Flipping through her mail, it was the usual, bills, bills and more bills, she was going to forward them to Gringotts later. The last envelope caught her attention, it was bright red, like the file McGonagall had given her, gingerly picking it up, she tore it open and out fell a tiny piece of paper that looked like it had been hastily ripped out of a book.

It was a note, in scrawly writing, it was written: _Do you believe in the dead being alive?_

Sighing a frustrated sigh, she discarded it, many kids in the neighbourhood liked to play pranks like this and drop weird mail in random houses. Walking back to the fridge, she got the jug of milk, "So, Julius, care for some more-" her jug fell to the floor with a crash as she saw who stood right in front of her.

Right there, looking her dead in the eye, stood Albus Dumbledore.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

"I swear Colin, I saw him!" Lena was saying to her laughing partner. It was the next morning and they had been called up the Shacklebolt's office and were on their way up there.

"You saw him?" Colin scoffed, "Albus Dumbledore, the same Albus that founded the

Order, the same Albus that died over twenty years ago?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Lena insisted, "He was there for a second and then vanished! Just like that!" she snapped her fingers.

"I believe you," Colin said seriously after some time.

"Really?" Lena was surprised at his change of heart.

"Yeah, you've had a rough couple of weeks with this case and maybe you're just tired," he explained, "it's happened to people before, hallucinating and all."

"But I wasn't hallucinating!" Lena protested, "he was there! He was real, solid and all."

Colin gave her a reassuring smile that told her that he was not buying any of it, but because he was her friend he would let her be. His hand was now on Shacklebolt's doorknob, "Alright," he said, "Now's the time to forget about all this because we're about to face the Shacklebolt."

Lena nodded, "Got that," she said as he opened the door.

Shacklebolt was sitting behind his desk. He had a certain affiliation for muggle clothes and today he wore a plain brown double breasted suit. But maybe it was because he lived in the middle of muggle London and so had to blend in.

"I see you got my owl," he said as they walked in, "Sit down."

The two sat opposite him as he flipped through his parchment sheets.

"Weasley came back with reports on the raid," he said, "they combed every house that had been hit and found the same thing everywhere," he pushed some pictures in front of them, "there is a gaping hole in every floor," he said.

"Meaning someone was there before us," Lena said as she flipped through the pictures.

"Yeah, and it seems like they didn't know exactly where to look," Colin chimed in, "every floor has been blown up."

"Did they find any…." Lena swallowed, "any of the creatures?"

"No," Shacklebolt shook his head, "it seems like, either they weren't there in the first place or they were taken."

"Do we know anything new about these things?" Colin asked, to which Shacklebolt shook his head.

"So we're back to the beginning," Lena sighed.

"No, there's still the case on Fiero," Colin said, "You said we're following him right?" he added after seeing Shacklebolt's expression.

"Not anymore," he said after he put the files away.

"What do you mean 'not anymore'?" Lena demanded.

"He is not in our jurisdiction; he hasn't been for fifteen years."

"But you said there was an investiga-"

"Well the Bulgarian ministry has withdrawn his case and we can't touch it anymore." Shacklebolt cut him off.

Lena drew a frustrated breath, "So then I guess that's it," she said as she slid out of her chair and walked out of the office.

Walking into her office, she opened the last drawer on her desk and took out the brown paper bag that was in there. She removed from it a bottle of Firewhisky and took a long swig from it before setting it on the table with a bang.

Searching around the cluttered table, she found the red file from the Order and started to go through it again. She took another swig and flipped a page. Swig. Page. Swig. Page. And still nothing. There must have been a reason these Purebloods were taken besides from being Purebloods that went into hiding. This all just did not make any sense at all.

A knock at the door had her snap her head up from the reading, Rose Weasley poked her head in. Lena inwardly groaned as the girl asked if she could come in. These newbies were all so excited about their first cases and wanted to share anything they found no matter how irrelevant.

Lena waved her in and Rose closed the door behind her as she walked towards Lena's desk. Straightening her large round glasses, she said, "Uh, Agent Jordan, I think I found something on the case."

"Well then," Lena motioned to the chair opposite hers, "time is of the essence."

Rose quickly hopped into the chair, the poor girl looked nervous but Lena was enjoying the feeling. She noticed that the bespectacled girl's gaze was focused on her bottle and Lena hastily put it away.

"Sorry about that," she said politely, "I hope it didn't make you uncomfortable," she did not mean a single word she said.

"No, no," the girl stuttered, "uh, here's what I found," she fumbled with her red file from the Order and placed it in front of Lena.

"Yes, the list of the victims," Lena drawled, "I believe we all have a copy."

"No," Rose replied hastily, "I mean this, do you see the names of the people, I mean their real names." She leaned closer to the desk to illustrate what she was talking about.

"_Alethia_,_ Stubbs, Thora, Deadwood, Ewann, Ten, Purr, Besure, Fas, Clair, Mason,_" Lena read and shrugged.

"Don't you see?" Rose asked.

"See what?"

"The names," she said, "I also overlooked them until I saw the connection." She paused to take a breath, "Have you ever heard about the House of Katharos?"

"Unfortunately I was never one to listen to fairy tales," Lena replied dryly.

"It was in an unpublished book of Bathilda Bagshot's_; A History of Blood_."

"Keep talking."

"Well you see, there was this man Katharos, he had 12 sons, each with his own personality. They were the first purebloods, it is believed they came straight from the gods."

"I thought the earliest purebloods were the Blacks, Malfoys-"

Lena was cut off, Rose clearly loved to take charge, "No, they were distant descendants, only shared a fraction of the Katharos blood- why do you think the book was never released to the public?"

"They wanted no one to know."

Rose nodded, "Anyway, these names are anagrams or anglicised versions of the twelve houses of katharos. _Each means 'clean' or 'pure' or 'true' in one language or the other._" She leaned to show her what she meant, "These people were not chosen by random. They were the descendants of Katharos, the earliest known wizard. He was a demi-god. The 12 sons correspond to 12 constellations: Alethia- Aries, Mason-Taurus, Tahor-Gemini, Asil-Cancer, Anwen-Leo, Net-Virgo, Pur-Libra, Sauber-Scorpio, Saf-Sagittarius, Clair-Capricorn, Berura-Aquarius and Nova-Pisces." Rose gasped for air once she was done.

"Where's 12?" Lena asked.

"Huh?"

"Son number 12, you mentioned eleven names, we've only had eleven cases, you mentioned Nova."

"I'm sorry, I could not find them in the missing person's database... this was just a theory Ma'am."

Lena instantly got up from her seat and walked towards the door, "A good theory, and don't call me Ma'am." She was already out of the door by then.

Rose was following her closely; too afraid to say anything else but too curious to know what her boss was thinking.

Lena went to the Records office and slammed the door open. The supervisor, Teddy Lupin looked at her with surprise and a tint of annoyance.

"How may I help you?" he asked a little coldly. No one exactly liked Lena, but all respected her.

"Pull up everything you have on family name Nova."

Teddy moved to his files and started to look, after some time he turned back and shook his head, "Nothing since 1869, and that was in Portugal."

"No lines in Britain?"

"None." Teddy replied.

"You could try um…anagrams," Rose attempted to speak for the first time since the office, "Or anglicised versions of Nova," she hesitantly moved forward to show him, "It means new or innocent going further to mean pure. So maybe you could pull up that or words linked to it."

Lupin nodded and started his work. Lena's mind was racing a million miles a minute. So what if someone had the same idea as this Weasley girl, then what did they want with these people.

"What do you think they could have in common apart from coming from the oldest line, what do you think they could want from these people?" she asked the small girl, right now, she seemed to have all the answers.

Rose shook her head, "I dunno …money, power maybe."

"How much money would drive one to find someone who literally disappeared years ago?" Lena mused.

"Found something," Lupin said.

They all moved forward to the enchanted paper.

"Jesse McLean," he said, "squib living as a muggle in Limehouse."

"Last recorded by the Ministry?" Lena asked.

"1977," Lupin replied.

"I think we have our guy," Lena said, "McLean." She scoffed at the ironic obviousness but obscurity of the name. This guy was hiding in plain sight.

"They say the best way to tell a lie is to keep it close to the truth," Rose added.

She walked up to Shacklebolt's office and knocked, without waiting for a response, she got in.

"I did not say you could come in," he growled, clearly annoyed.

"Sorry sir," she breathed, "but I think we know the next place they will hit."

Shacklebolt rose from his chair, Lena threw her file on the table, "there were thirty pureblood families that had gone into hiding, but I think they are only looking for twelve."

"And you know this how?"

"Never mind that sir," Lena hastily said, "Point is we need to get to Jesse McLean's home right now."

Shacklebolt was already sending his Patronus to Weasley's office by the time Lena was done explaining and he had his coat on in a minute.

Lena rushed outside and bumped into Colin, "I have just received an alert," he said.

"Yeah, we have to go," she replied.

The majority of the auror office was on their feet by the time they got downstairs and they were all out, apparating at the apparition point and going to said place.

Lena loved Limehouse; it was one of the few places she genuinely appreciated. The music, the mixed culture, the colours in the evening. Too bad tonight was not for recreation but for invading muggle land for someone who hopefully was the person they were looking for. She quickly walked past the crowded streets, people gave them strange looks because of their cloaks but she paid no mind. They finally reached the place, it was an old run down extension of a flat and half of it was underground. Lena nodded to Simon Nott, the leader of the team, he went down the stairs and blasted the door open. About five aurors followed behind him and when one yelled 'Clear', Lena knew it was safe to get in.

The place was just as shabby inside as it was outside; it looked like no one had been for ages. The little hallway Lena was standing in was the size of her broom cupboard and the dust was practically growing a life of its own.

"Agent Jordan!" she recognised it as Potter.

Lena quickly followed the voice and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the gaping hole in the kitchen.

"They were here," he said quietly.

"And it was not long ago," Colin added from behind her, he had a cup of tea, "Tea's still hot." He set the cup back on the dirty counter.

Lena drew a frustrated sigh, "They were here," she repeated, "and we lost them."

She walked out of the kitchen and back into the hallway, where Rose was huddled, reading a rather large book.

"What's that?" Lena asked.

"_A History of Blood, _I managed to find a copy from the _Lost Records _Department," she replied, "it's not complete though."

"Find anything important?"

Rose shook her head, "No, all I know is that the Zodiac has been completed and now, I don't know what they are going to do with those people."

"Just another dead end," she muttered.

"I'm sorry," Rose said.

Lena looked at her and gave her something like a smile, "Don't be, you led us here. You were smart enough to realise what these people are up to and now we can be able to narrow our search."

"Jordan," Shacklebolt's gruff voice was something she would never miss.

"Sir," she replied as she turned to face him.

"Well done on the intel, at least we-"

"It was all Weasley sir," Lena did not feel like taking false credit. Shacklebolt cocked his head to one side and regarded the little Weasley girl. With her oversized glasses, her thin frame, a book that looked like it was about to crush her and her shaking uncontrollably, she looked a spectacle,

"You're Weasley's girl?" he asked gruffly.

"Yy-yes sir," she said quickly.

He nodded at her, "Good job," and with that, he walked away.

"…._life she's a cruel queen_

_Everyone must strike a deal_

_It doesn't matter where you've been_

_With that devil a bargain to seal….. _"

Lena was back home, the little radio was playing "Devil Queen" by the Wailing Willows. She paid no heed to the song as she was seated at her kitchen table, one hand on her temple, the other flipping through some newspaper cuttings she had collected as a child. Opposite her, Julius was calmly sipping his milk. She had not forgotten what had happened last night but she was determined to get it out of her head.

She picked up one of the old papers, it was dated over twenty years ago, it read:

"_BRAVE CREATORS OF POTTERWATCH HONOURED BY MINISTER OF MAGIC:_

_Lee Jordan, George Weasley and the late Fred Weasley were awarded last night by Minister Shacklebolt for the creation of the renegade radio station 'Potterwatch', the radio station that was used by the many faithful indeed helped people to safety and gave them hope during those dark times… _"

She dropped the paper and picked up another one, this one read:

"_LEE JORDAN LAUNCHES OWN RADIO STATION, PREDICTED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL THIS YEAR: _

_The original creator of Potterwatch has moved on to launch his own Quidditch themed radio station and already ratings have been through the roof and it has not been a week yet. Critics say that this young man has a promising future…"_

She picked up a third one, paused to take a sip of her wine before continuing;

"_LEE JORDAN SET TO WED PARTNER OF TWO MONTHS:_

_Mr Jordan, who had been rumoured to be seeing Stella Faalktstog, now has confirmed the relationship by announcing that they are now engaged. The English man and the Swedish lady have been set to wed in the next month. Insiders who claim to know the young couple claim that they have nothing in common and are taking things too quickly, and it has been rumoured that this marriage is a set up. Do you think that our young man is taking things too fast? Do you think this is a match made in heaven? Please write to us to let us know."_

Lena dropped the Witch Weekly cutting and reached over for a Daily Prophet one, this one was her favourite one, it had a picture of both her parents, but at the same time it was the one she hated most. It read:

"_JORDAN AND WIFE FOUND DEAD IN THEIR HOME: _

_Lee and Stella Jordan have been found dead in their London home by the house help who came in for her shift that morning. Their five year old daughter, Lena was found and she is currently safe at St Mungo's. The auror office reports it as the use of the unforgivable killing curse but the wand cannot be traced to any registered ones in Britain. It has been a really sad time for both sides of the family and the rest of the UK too. A great number are going to miss that laugh of lee's on his talk show and radio programmes, the Minister announces that the world has lost a 'Great Gift to Radio', and that justice will prevail. Below are some pictures of the family. "_

Lena put the cutting down, she had seen the pictures a million times before. Justice never did prevail, they never found the killer, he had covered his tracks perfectly. But Lena now knew him, she could place a face to this man and she was going to get justice on her own terms.

A knock at the door roused her from her thoughts, she walked there and opened but found no one. Instead, at the floor was a small red envelope, she picked it up with shaky hands and opened.

This time it read, "_Run!_"


	4. Chapter 4

IT'S ALL WATER UNDER THE UM-BRIDGE

Lena flooed to the Ministry that morning and was greeted by an almost chilling atmosphere. She knew that people here were not exactly friendly to her but on occasion she would get a polite 'good morning' here and there. No, this was different, it was an '_I don't want to say anything because I don't know what to say_' kind of silence. She slowly walked to her office and after putting her cloak away, walked into Colin's office.

"Is it just me or is the weather much chillier today?" she asked the man behind the desk while nodding outside his office.

"I wouldn't blame them, it's all tensed up today," Colin said as he rolled up his sleeves and took a pencil from behind his ear.

"Yeah, we didn't find the guy, I know I was pretty upset about it too at first but it's not the first time we've ever lost someone." She said as she sat down opposite him and grabbed a mini truffle from the plate on his desk.

Colin shook his head and chuckled bitterly, "You did not hear, did you?"

"Well, now I'm here, you can tell me," Lena suggested, mouth full.

"Well then, I guess it's even better that you are seated," he said after taking a deep breath.

Lena moved to the edge of her chair, Colin moved from his side and perched on the corner of the desk that was closest to her.

"Shacklebolt got fired last night." The words dropped like a bomb to Lena. Yes, he could be insufferable most times but he was the best director the CDAU had ever had in decades.

"Do we know who's replaced him?" Lena asked, still in shock. The truffle was forgotten about and it had found its way back on the plate, half eaten.

"Unfortunately yes," he replied.

"Well…" Lena pressed.

"Agent Willis, Agent Jordan, good to find you in the same room," Lena did not need to turn to know that it was none other than Dolores Umbridge speaking to them.

After a few years at St. Mungo's, Umbridge had been released and had claimed to be better than ever. She got a position at the ministry and Lena still had the shudders at the memory of doing her interrogation training with Umbridge.

"Ms Umbridge," Lena breathed, how long had she been standing there.

"Follow me to my office please," she said as she walked out. Lena noticed that she had now ditched the completely pink attires-well almost.

Shacklebolt's office had been transformed into a very _comfortable_ room. Where his spotless glass table stood was a white wooden desk, the stiff chairs had been changed for sofas and there were little flower pots at the windows.

'_Well, at least it's not pink,' _Lena thought as she sat down, _"and the cat portraits are all gone!"_

"Care for some tea?" she asked.

"No thanks," they both declined, both familiar with her method of dosing her drinks with Veritaserum, another trick she taught them in Interrogation Training.

"Alright," Umbridge replied as she poured herself a cup of steaming tea. After sitting down, she continued, "Now, as you obviously have noticed Mr David Shacklebolt will not be returning to the Counter Dark Arts Unit any time soon for he breached the conduct of not disclosing classified information, which he did when he told you about the Fiero case and the creatures X."

"The Creatures X?" Colin asked.

"Yes, that's what head office has now taken to calling them," she replied, "and you had no grounds to know of them due to your level clearance."

"I thought, because we are investigating this case, we have a right to know," Colin retorted.

"There is no such thing as true rights in this world Agent," Umbridge chuckled, "but that's all water under the bridge now, for I came to tell you that the case is closed."

"What?" Lena asked.

"We have decided not to follow up with the case. Close all books and have all aurors on the case start to work on something else."

"That's just preposterous," Lena breathed.

"No Agent Jordan, what's preposterous is the Ministry wasting good government money on a case that leads to more dead ends, it's been half a year. What we want is results and this is making this division look bad."

"We only just got to understand the dynamics of this case Ms Umbridge," Lena was leaning forward in her chair, "and with all due respect, I don't think you understand what this case means to us as a division."

"I understand that, and yes I might not understand it but I do understand clearly the money that has been wasted on this whim."

"_Whim!_" Lena scoffed, "There are people who have gone missing, people who could potentially have all the answers to the questions we have been asking, people whose power we do not know. And now, when we can finally place a face to one of these people you come and shut us down?"

"Find me some concrete evidence to show that case 2947b is relevant enough for this Ministry to spend money on. Otherwise this case is closed, and that's final," Umbridge said curtly.

Lena sat back in her chair and took a deep breath, she had invested a large amount of time on this case and now it was gone, just like that.

"That is all," Umbridge said after she took a long sip from her cup, "I'll have the word spread in a few minutes."

Lena nodded, got out of her chair and sauntered out of the colourful office.

"Do you believe her?" she asked Colin, who had spoken only a few words.

Lena stormed into her office and threw her wand on the desk. The sat down and kneaded her temples, trying to think what next. Just when she had finally placed a name and a face to the man who had murdered her parents, a man who could potentially be behind these heinous crimes, Umbridge came and shut the show.

There was a small knock at the door and a small man walked in.

"I'm sorry to disturb you but I need to collect all the files on case 2947b," he said tentatively as Lena shot him a death glare.

"Sure, go ahead," she said, getting up she grabbed her cloak and walked out of her office.

"Where are you going?" Colin asked her as she bumped into him on the way out of the CDAU division office. He was giving a box of files to another orderly.

"I think I must have missed something," Lena said to no one in particular as she pushed past him.

Lena did not hear what he said next as she got to the apparition point and turned on the spot.

When she finally re-apparated, she was standing right in front of Mclean's front door. She slowly took out her wand and pushed the door open. Yesterday had happened all too fast and Lena was convinced she must have missed something.

"_Lumos,_" she whispered, and the tip of her wand instantly lit up.

The place looked just like yesterday, the little table in the corner of the hallway, the tacky wallpaper, the same stuffy smell.

Lena slowly peeled off some of the wall paper and examined the wall behind it for clues, there was nothing, just dull brown colour. Lena inched towards the kitchen and looked around, the place looked untouched. The same cup on the counter, everything that had been tagged and numbered by the CDAU lay as it was. Lena was about to turn when she saw that behind one of the kitchen chairs lay a cloak.

She walked around the hole and picked up the piece of clothing, this was not there yesterday otherwise it would have been bagged and taken to the labs. That meant only one thing: someone must have come back, or they were still here. Lena dropped the cloak and tiptoed up the stairs, wand leading the way.

"_Nox_," she whispered, and was covered in darkness, she did not want whoever was there to know she was coming.

Lena slowed down when she heard a slight scraping on the wall adjacent to where she stood, they must be in the bedroom. With stealth only an experienced auror would accomplish, she walked to the door and slammed it open, "FREEZE! CDAU!" She yelled as she flashed her now lit wand at the culprit.

Fiero looked at Lena and showed only a fraction of fear before sending a spell towards her and blasted the wall to run through it. Lena ducked and narrowly missed the curse, she now had a new born drive to catch him; she now knew for sure that he had all the answers. She ran through the hole in the wall and sent a spell towards him, it missed and instead smashed an old picture frame.

"FIERO! STOP!" She shouted as he ran towards the kitchen, he swiftly jumped into the hole and Lena followed.

She silently willed her wand to go off and walked in the darkness. He was bound to move soon, and then she would find him. Following instructions from her first year of training, she kept her back to the wall. Walking round the darkness with one palm touching the wall, the other with her wand at attack position, Lena found a corner and reeled when she felt a sticky substance meet her palm.

"_Incendio_," she heard a whisper and Lena knew it wasn't good. She jumped out of the way just in time to miss the hot flames that now engulfed the room. She and Fiero now stood inside the blazing inferno, he had his wand in one hand and an evil smirk dressed his face.

"Alright, you wanted me and now you've found me," he snarled, "let's get this done with now!"

Lena wasted no time replying as she sent a wave of ropes flying towards him, which dismissed with a flick of his wand.

His spell was the Cruciatus curse which narrowly missed Lena, she fired a stunner which he ducked too.

The heat started to get to Lena, the smoke had started to form, "What, already tired are we?" he taunted, "I thought for a second that we were the number one auror in the country!"

"You murderer!" Lena furiously sent out a killing curse, she was blinded by her rage and the laws had long stopped registering in her mind.

The curse missed Fiero and he fired back with a body bind curse that Lena blocked.

The smoke started to get thicker, Lena's head was starting to feel light, "_Confringo!_" she yelled as the curse left her wand.

"_Protego_!" he countered, the smoke had ridded the concentration of both of them and none could form a coherent spell in silence.

"_Expelliarmus!_" she shouted.

Fiero blocked it and sent another curse which she managed to block silently.

Both stopped for a while, circling each other like animals in a cage, wands drawn at point, both waiting to attack or block a spell.

"Tired already?" he taunted once more.

"You killed my parents, I'll rest when I kill you." She snarled.

He laughed, a bitter laugh, "You know not what you are getting yourself into, I'm giving you a chance to leave now and forget this ever happened."

"Never!" Lena yelled as she sent a curse blasting in his direction.

Fiero easily blocked it, Lena started to wonder where he got his training from.

"It is not an option for you to choose!" he shouted furiously at her, "And if you ever come looking for me, I promise this time I will kill you!"

Before Lena knew what was happening, he sent his wand above her head and screamed, "_Bombarda!_"

Lena heard a crashing noise and the last thing she felt was something heavy hit her head before everything went black.

…As for Fiero, he had simultaneously incanted a shield charm and was left unharmed. Stepping out of the wreckage, he glanced at the crushed auror below him, she seemed to be alive, just unconscious.

"Somebody will find you," he whispered to Lena as he stepped out of the ruins and out of the front door.

To everyone else on the street, there vibration could maybe have been a small earth tremor. Or more believably, it was probably just some construction blasts for the new mall they were building nearby. A few who were close to the house just saw a bald man with a long beard had just stepped out of old Mclean's home, he was probably a visiting friend. He walked past the people, holding his cloak in his hands and even gave a small smile to a passing child. He turned into the nearest alley and disappeared from sight.


End file.
